APOLLO SPACE PROGRAM
The Apollo space program
was a massive undertaking,
instrumental in making the
ights undertaken to the
Moon a reality.
(Image courtesy of NASA)
Flights of passage
Apollo was the NASA program that resulted in American astronauts making a total of
11 spacefl ights and walking on the Moon. As we celebrate the 50 years since the fi rst Moon
landing, Colin Ledsome CEng FIED looks back from terra fi rma to relive how it all came about
The national divinity of the
Greeks, Apollo, is generally
acclaimed as the god of sun
and light – but is also widely
recognised as a god of archery, music
and dance, truth and prophecy, healing
and diseases, poetry, and more. With
such a glowing list of credentials, it’s
little wonder that his name became the
abiding symbol of a space programme
that sought to go where no one had
ventured before.
The Apollo space program in the
1960s was a massive undertaking. It
required not just the biggest launcher
ever built, Saturn V, but a complex
background of technical and logistical
infrastructure to enable the ights
undertaken to the Moon.
Three main NASA establishments,
backed up by a large number of other
facilities, took on the work: the Johnson
Space Center in Houston was the mission
control and astronaut training centre,
the Kennedy Space Center at Cape
Canaveral took on the nal assembly
and launch tasks, and the
Marshal Space ight Center at
Huntsville, Alabama, looked
after the design and engine
testing.
All came under the overview of
NASA HQ at the Goddard Centre near
Washington, which also had a research
focus. Other NASA facilities included
the Langley Research Center in Virginia,
responsible for equipment testing and
ight control and trajectory calculations
(as shown in the recent lm ‘Hidden
Figures’).
SCALING UP
The Kennedy Space Center had to be
equipped to build, transport, fuel and
launch the range of Saturn vehicles.
Assembly was done in “the largest singlestory
building in the world”, the Vehicle
Assembly Building, VAB. It covers 8 acres
(3 ha) and encloses 129,428,000 cubic
feet (3,665,000 m3) of space. Some
4,225 pilings were driven down 164 feet
to bedrock, with a foundation consisting
of 30,000 cubic yards (23,000
m3) of concrete. Construction
of the VAB required 98,590
tons of steel.
The VAB is 526 feet (160.3
m) tall, 716 feet (218.2 m) long
and 518 feet (157.9 m) wide. It is
designed to withstand the hurricanes and
tropical storms of the Atlantic coast,
but has been damaged several times.
It has detachable panels to equalise
the internal pressure with the exterior to
reduce damage.
The building was originally designed
to accommodate the biggest launch
vehicle then conceived, a giant called
NOVA, even larger than Saturn V. The
highest part is divided into four bays, so
that several vehicles can be assembled
at the same time. Each bay has a door
(of course, the largest in the world), with
an opening 456 feet (139.0 m) high,
which takes 45 minutes to open. The
building has ve overhead bridge cranes,
two of which can lift 325 tons, and 136
other lifting devices. The bridge cranes
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